Thorpe’s performances were removed from the official results.

The reaction within the athletic establishment was swift and, in certain quarters, uncomfortable.

Even the letter the AAU national committee sent to the IOC carried a note of ambivalence.

While condemning Thorpe, the committee added that those who had known about his baseball playing and had remained silent were “deserving of still greater censure.” It was an admission, buried in official language, that the system had failed before it punished the athlete.

The athletes who were elevated — Bie and Wieslander — had their own reactions that would become significant much later.